Omaggio a Franco Battiato

Between 2021 and 2022, thanks to thorough research work involving Carlo Boccadoro, the pianist Antonio Ballista, the Ricordi publishing house and the SIAE archive, composer Franco Battiato’s classical scores came to light: these included many chamber music compositions from the period when the Sicilian musician had moved away from the world of pop experimentation and song to devote himself to avant-garde classical music (1976 to 1979), believed lost for over forty years. Battiato had documented these pieces in a series of records released for Ricordi but which, until 2001, had never been presented in concert. These works are presented together for the first time on the same evening, exclusively for Romaeuropa Festival, allowing the public to embark on a fascinating journey through the pages of a mysterious and little-known Battiato, where echoes of American minimalism blend with the sonic purity typical of his style, anticipating the developments of ambient music by more than a decade and ideally conversing with composers such as Arvo Pärt, John Cage and Steve Reich.